The present invention relates to electrical power control circuitry and, more particularly, to an improved system for monitoring and correcting the power factor of a power installation.
Electrical power is an enormously versatile and convenient source of energy. However, there are costs in generating and distributing electrical energy, which tend to increase when demand for electrical power increases. For this reason, there is always a motivation for increasing the efficiency of electrical power transmission and utilization
Alternating current electrical power is characterized by a phase relationship between the current and voltage. Current lagging the voltage results from a preponderance of inductive loads, while current leading the voltage results from capacitive loads. An in-phase relationship results from resistive loads or a balance of inductive and capacitive loads. In-phase current results in xe2x80x9crealxe2x80x9d or resistive power, while out-of-phase current results in xe2x80x9capparentxe2x80x9d or reactive power from the influence of inductive or capacitive reactance in the power circuit. A commonly used measure of the phase relationship between current and voltage is power factor, which is equal to the cosine of the phase angle therebetween. Power factor maximizes at a value of unity when the relationship is effectively resistive, is positive and less than one when inductive, and is negative and less than one when capacitive.
There tend to be more types of inductive loads connected to power lines than capacitive, such as electric motors, transformers, and the like. Power companies often impose surcharges on industrial power customers when their loads drive the power factor below a selected level. To avoid this, industrial users often connect power factor correcting capacitors to the power line along with their inductive loads to compensate and retain the power factor at an economic level.
In residential power installations, the majority of electrical energy consumed is in refrigeration, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, and, in some cases, heating. Relatively small amounts of energy are also used for communications, computers, entertainment devices, and the like. Watt-hour meters typically used in residential and small business installations do not distinguish between real power and apparent power. Thus, the customer is charged for both, even though apparent power is not actually xe2x80x9cconsumedxe2x80x9d for any purpose useful for the customer.
While there are power factor correcting systems available for large industrial power users, there have been no practical or economical devices for correcting power factors of residential and small business customers. Generally, industrial power factor correcting systems are associated with the equipment for which they are intended to compensate and are activated in coordination with such equipment. In the past, it has not been considered practical or economical for owners of residential property to install power factor correction devices for each possible inductive load. Additionally, inductive devices in residences tend to be activated at random times, for example, under the control of thermostats.
The present invention provides a system for correcting the power factor of small power installations, such as residences, apartments, small businesses, and the like. The system of the present invention generally includes a plurality of reactance units or capacitors which are selectively coupled to a power line and a sensor unit to determine if the capacitors connected to the power line have favorably affected the power factor.
In general, the present invention measures an electrical parameter of the power drawn by a load of a power installation which is capable of indicating a level of reactive power drawn by the load and couples a combination of reactance elements to the power line to substantially compensate for the level of reactive power indicated by the electrical parameter measured. The invention is directed to a first embodiment which is based entirely on a level of current measured and the effect of compensating reactance on the measured current level and a second embodiment which is based on a measurement of phase angle of the power drawn.
More particularly, the first embodiment of the power factor correction system of the present invention continually measures the current level drawn by the installation. When an increase in current is detected, it is assumed that a power load has been activated. A capacitor unit is connected to the power line, and the current measured again. If the current level increases, it is determined that capacitor unit has not favorably affected the power factor, and the capacitor is disconnected. If, on the other hand, connecting the capacitor caused the measured current to decrease, additional capacitance is connected to the power line. The process repeats until the current again rises, at which point, the most recently connected capacitor is disconnected.
In measuring the current drawn by loads within the power installation, the present invention averages a number of current measurements over time and takes no compensation action unless a change of a selected current difference is measured in less than a selected interval ov time. This approach, thus, reduces switching transients by making the system relatively immune to small variations in drawn current. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention bases compensating capacitance increments in multiples of a base capacitance which would result in a reactance that would draw about one ampere of current at the nominal power line frequency and voltage. The base capacitance is 22 microfarads for a power installation with a line frequency of 60 hertz and a nominal voltage of 110 volts.
The present invention maximizes the speed of arriving at a compensating combination of capacitors by providing a set of capacitors with values varying in powers of two multiplied by the base capacitance. The set of capacitors include: 1, 2, 4, 8 . . . 128 times the base capacitance. By this means, the power factor correction quickly arrives at an initial correction by doubling the value of compensating capacitance until the measured current level increases. In binary terms, this initial correction represents a xe2x80x9cmost significant digitxe2x80x9d. The process continues, by incrementing rather than doubling, until an optimum combination is determined, which also fills in the xe2x80x9cless significant digitsxe2x80x9d.
A typical installation of the present invention includes a set of eight compensating capacitors with values ranging in powers of two from 1 to 128 times the base capacitance of 22 microfarads. The compensating capacitors are connected through latching switches across the power line. The latching switches are interfaced to an eight-bit output port of a controller, such as a microprocessor or microcontroller. By this means, the controller can connect any one of 256 combinations of the capacitors across the power line or disconnect any or all of the capacitors from the power line by writing an appropriate binary word to the output port in which the bit content of the binary word corresponds to the combination of capacitors to be connected or disconnected.
In the second, phase based, embodiment of the present invention, both current and voltage and the phase relationship therebetween are continually measured. The amount of compensating capacitance value to reduce the phase angle to near zero is calculated. Then a combination of capacitors which roughly equals the compensating capacitance value is coupled to the power line to compensate for the sensed inductive loads. The second embodiment of the present invention employs the same set of capacitors and, in general, the same apparatus as the first embodiment. Thus, the second embodiment uses a set of capacitors whose capacitance values are multiples of a base capacitance which would result in a reactance that would draw one ampere of current at the nominal line frequency and voltage. The set of capacitors also vary in value in powers of two multiplied by the base capacitance.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in relation to the accompanying drawings wherein are set forth, by way of illustration and example, certain embodiments of this invention.
The drawings constitute a part of this specification, include exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and illustrate various objects and features thereof.